Thanks... even for the stuff that kinda sucks.

Marie, Ashley, me and Kylee at Brian and Adrienne's wedding last Sept.

It's Thanksgiving. Most people love this holiday, me not so much. Maybe if i had kids. I would like it better if it was not so close to Christmas and if people didn't already start decorating their homes so early, as two houses down the road have done this week. It's only November 17 and i feel a little bit stressed that i haven't thought about presents nor do i have any ideas.

But i do know this. I have a lot to be thankful for even in spite of stuff that bugs me. I thought about these last night when i couldn't sleep. So i decided to write them down: Here we go.

1. Health: As a committed runner I am pissed at having high blood pressure. I really hate how tired the medication seems to make me and i think it has blunted what creativity i used to have. Sometimes i try to see if i can control it. For example i didn't have any wine last week so i decided to try going without my pills to see what would happen since i figured no wine would make it better. I skipped them for two days. By the afternoon of the second day i had a scheduled appointment and the nurse told me that it was up to 155/95 even though it had been ok that morning. I told her i accidentally forgot. Then i went home and took my medicine. (Lesson: I can't control it.)

I never have liked taking medicine (even aspirin). But i am so thankful that i have good health insurance and that there is medication that keeps me healthy. And another thing: if giving up wine lowered my blood pressure then i would have to make a serious decision about giving up wine for good in lieu of taking the medication i hate.


2. Job: I don't always love my job. Too many values get stomped on when i watch what happens with some of the folks in union leadership. Lack of work ethics and follow through, wasting money, greediness, inflated egos, it goes on.

However, i am thankful that for 25 years i got to work for an employer that not only allowed me my political leanings, but embraced them, encouraged them and expected me to act on them. This was one of the best elections i can remember in all of my years of voting. And in our state my union employer had alot to do with this success. Out of 99 legislative candidates we endorsed, 79 were elected. That's what i call action and effort.


3. Living in the Pacific Northwest: Yes, the rain and semen colored skies are a bitch. And our mushroom colored skin and perpetually bad hair days this time of year do not help make us attractive in our holiday photos. And the sunset (4:32 pm today) makes me tired by 8:30 at night.

However, I am thankful for this: (back to election for a moment) : We grew up in our early youth in Louisiana where my mom was also born and raised. And every election year (except those two George W ones) i call my dad on the phone and thank him for moving us to Washington State from Louisiana.

AND truthfully, i sort of love the rain. It's conducive to my lifestyle anyway. I love to be indoors, i am a voracious reader and i love TV, cooking,  movies and low lights. I don't even mind running in it. And  the high humidity (nearly 10 months of the year) and lack of sun benefits our skin and helps to keep us younger looking.

4. Family: I sometimes think i was born into the wrong family.  With the exception of my Dad, they all love to party. A lot. With Coors Lite Beer (ick!) or my mom's big magnums of cheap chardonnay If it's at my parents little house (where my mom always wants it), it's always a quasi-hoarder's chaotic paradise, where i spend the first 5 minutes straightening all her pictures on the wall to settle down my slight OCD. And if you want a seat you first have to navigate and excavate piles of magazines, folded laundry, and other crap first.

The meal is always BBQ and lots of it. (I call it caveman eating).  And for some reason my mom thinks she always has to make some casserole with the key ingredient being cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup. It's a raucous affair. The music comes off one of those cable TV channels. And the conversations can often turn to politics, religion, which celebrity would we be willing to cheat on our spouses with (mine was Brad Pitt, but only if he has quit smoking),  AND if we were gay which celebrity would we want to date...(Rachel Maddow for me)....nothing is off the table!

But even as i get irritated at times by these very things, i am actually thankful for all of these reasons above too. I am never intimidated about what to cook or bring to these affairs. The music playing is usually the blues.  And I always bring my own bottle of chardonnay, and nobody give me the raised eyebrow when i pour my third glass AND if after my third glass I say something stupid, nobody will even notice in the midst of all of the arguing about same sex marriage. And like my nephew Brian says, "We Louvraks are  good looking family!" I love my family. And they love my husband and he loves them.  And that is what matters. (So what if i sometimes feel adopted.)

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  If you are reading, (and by the stats i know you are even if you don't post - unless is amulbunny and louie checking in 500 times each by themselves)....Anyway, if you are, please come share yours.

My brother Scott and Kylee at her Art Institute graduation 2010

Kylee's mom Marie, brother Troy, and me at nephew Brian's wedding

Coors Lite balancing with Troy and Brian

Kylee with Brian at the Bayou Bar at Scott's house, both wearing goofy glasses

I love this photo of Kylee from a couple of Christmases ago

niece Jessica, me, Jessica's daughter Mari and Kylee

My Baybee and Kylee March 2011

Nephew Josh, Brian, and Ashley Christmas 2008